Job Creation Remains Vital In Economic Recovery Says Biden

By Justine Rellosa-Talk Radio News Service

Vice President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the economy is, in fact, "on the mend" and added that job creation is still at the forefront of change.

According to government figures, the Recovery Act has created 2.5 million jobs so far and it increased the current GDP by as much as three percent last quarter. Biden said that nearly $100 billion of the Recovery Act tax cuts are pulling "double-duty" shifts by helping families gain efficient income through multiplier effects and boosting economic activity.

"The economy is clearly on a mend. In the first quarter of this year we added 54,000 jobs per month. Now, I know, and we all know, that that rate of job growth is too slow to bring down the unemployment rate," Biden said. "Continued weakness in job creation remains a major challenge, one the President and the whole administration is committed to meeting."

The Vice President said that the plan for economic growth includes rules and regulations that protect consumers and tax payers, education reform, sustainable federal spending and energy independence.

"The next expansion is characterized by prosperity that is broadly shared by new economic opportunities for the middle class," Biden said. "By finally tearing down the barriers to health care and education [and] by starting us down a path toward energy independence, we’ll be building the America we need in order to compete... and lead in the 21st century."

Chairman Obey: A rising tide has raised only all yachts

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

“Loosely speaking, rich dumb kids are more likely to make it through college than poor smart kids, and that’s telling you that we are a society in which whatever we may like to imagine we are not a society that has anything like equality of opportunity,” said Paul Krugman, a Professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University and Nobel Prize-winner.

Today at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services hearing, witnesses expressed their thoughts on the economy, healthcare and inequality. Krugman said that one major reason why a growing economy has failed to deliver to ordinary Americans is because of inequality. “Many of the gains in income went to a small minority of very well-off people, with most workers seeing little rise in real wage,” he said. Krugman said that the secondary reason for the failure of economic growth is the dysfunctional health care system. “We are unique among advanced countries in not having some form of universal coverage, yet we spend far more to cover 85 percent of our population than our counterparts spend to cover everyone, with no evidence that we receive correspondingly better care,” Krugman said.

Keith Hall, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, had something different to say about healthcare. Hall said that since the start of the recession in December 2007, 4.4. million payroll jobs have been lost, and the unemployment rate has increased from 4.9 to 8.1 percent. But Hall said “employment has grown only in healthcare, private education, and government.”

“We first need to measure the stimulus package against the current needs of the economy.... The package as it now stands is mitigating. It’s not even enough to prevent us from having a very severe recession.... If we respond to concern about the size of the package by scaling back other government spending we’re undoing the effects of the stimulus package, making it even more inadequate,” concluded Krugman.

Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) concluded the hearing by stating that he believes that we can strengthen the safety net for those who aren’t doing well in the economy through actions like universal healthcare and pension protection. “The problem is that it has been said by others in the past, at some times in our recent history it appears that a rising tide has raised only all yachts.”

McCain, Obama advisors spar over economy, taxes

Economics, tax cuts, social security and health care dominated a discussion held by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) today looking at how the next president will pay the nation’s bills. AARP, which is the nation’s largest lobbying organization, held the forum with policy advisors for both Senators McCain and Obama. The discussion was moderated by Wall Street Journal Economics Editor David Wessel and also featured Diane Lim Rogers from the Concord Coalition and John Rother with AARP.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Advisor with the McCain campaign wasted no time in attacking Sen. Obama for his health care proposal and how he would finance it. Holtz-Eakin said “Senator Obama has made the promise that every American should have health care comparable to Congress. That’s about $7,000 for an individual, $12,000 at the moment for a family plan. There are about 50 million uninsured if you multiply 7,000 times 50 million you get 350 billion dollars and that money has to come from somewhere and so far there is no explanation as to where.” Holtz-Eakin added that the Obama campaign needs to “show me the money.”

But Jeffrey Liebman with the Obama campaign stated that McCain’s plan is “bottom up economics.” In reference to the social security debate “Sen. Obama thinks that pay as you go social security is probably the greatest invention on the domestic side in history and it’s certainly not disgraceful,” said Liebman.

Liebman added that the McCain campaign put out an economic plan in which they said the Obama campaign cannot afford our benefit promises to seniors. But Liebman says that Obama “does believe we can choose to meet our benefit promises to seniors.” Liebman added that Obama believes the best way to handle social security is “in a bipartisan way,” and that the place to start in paying for it is “to have the people that can most afford it contribute more revenue.

In closing on a central campaign theme, Holtz-Earkin seemed to criticize both parties for failing to deliver results. “This country is not just tired of eight years of the Bush Administration. It is tired of a Congress that fails to deliver and it is tired of politicians who cannot rise above their party or narrow political ambitions to put the country first,” said Holtz-Earkin.

Gas prices making us reach for change

Consumers are being tipped upside down by the big oil companies, with money being shaken out of their pockets at the pump. This statement made by Chairman Edward Markey (D-MA), was widely echoed by all members of Congress present at the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. President Bush, he said, refuses to use our oil reserves, and not only is that something that can be done, it is something that should be done. Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) echoed that by adding that they need to put aside bipartisanship and releasing the reserves was essentially paying attention to Economics 101.

Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA) made an even stronger statement, saying ‘when your house is on fire it is more important to get the hose instead of take out another insurance policy.’ Why is it, he said, that we regulate wheat but not gas? Speculation is driving up prices, and the administration has refused to help us.

And that speculation of world condition is 1/3 of the price per barrel, according to Dr. Mark Cooper, Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America. America uses 1/4 of the oil in the world, and that 1/3 price is actually $38 dollars a barrel [as of today]. A side effect of high gas prices, is that trucks deliver almost all the consumer goods in the United States, Dave Berry, Vice President of the Swift Transportation Company, Inc, added. The high prices of gas and/or diesel are causing prices in consumer goods to go up, since they are trucked from place to place.

Kevin Book, Sr. Vice President & Senior Analyst for Energy Policy, Oil, & Alternative Energy, summed up the crisis as follows: We need to save energy on a daily basis and quit our oil addiction. This element was not expanded on, and instead all the questioning reverted to whether or not the panel thought that President Bush should deploy the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The answer was a very enthusiastic “yes” from Dave Berry. We’d like the President to stop filling the SPR, he said, and consumers at the pump will see the benefit.

Conference Call Dissects McCain’s Substance Free Housing Speech

The Center for American Progress Action Fund hosted a conference call examining Presidential hopeful John McCain’s Substance Free Housing speech.

Call moderators described the speech as having “all sizzle, no steak” and argued that it was “a day late and a buck short.” James Kvaal, Domestic Policy Advisor at the Center, wondered if Washington’s future, if under McCain, would include helping desparate homeowners, instead of simply “wall street” businessmen. Kvaal added that McCain’s stimulus package proposal was flawed, and did not do enough to help working class families.

Kvaal’s criticism also included a sentiment that McCain needs to start subscribing to new ideas, and that his recent call for lenders to come together to solve housing problems, was outdated and unsuccessful.